Pros
Receiving a check and some colleagues are great.
Cons
In my opinion, this company does not understand identifying skills, matching them appropriately, or basic workforce planning. There's no set hiring or performance evaluation process, which brews inequity. They say they run on an "advisor system," but unlike other consulting firms with coaches/advisors, there is still no formal conversation and rating, 360 feedback, or even internal job postings. Most, if not all, of the advisors are long-term friends of the CEO. My perception is they promote people they like and who they know won't threaten them (most companies do this, I'm sure, but in a company of 70 people it's hard to hide). There are just random announcements of who is hired and fired. This inherently leaves a lot of room for bias. In my time there I saw people rewarded who had many complaints from other employees and done poor quality work, while well-qualified (frequently women of color) employees were ignored or even let go (I was not in the room when these decisions were made, but it is my perception). The work-life balance for employees is really hit or miss. I've seen some people work only 8-5 (and poorly) and others work late into the night and over weekends (and yes, those are the employees who sometimes suddenly "disappear"). My perception is there's a ton of favoritism. Staffing was always a disaster because again, no understanding of skill matching or workforce planning. It frustrates the clients and the teams. There aren't many institutional policies in place either to guide things like deliverable delivery and what can be reused. In my experience, when I asked for guidance I usually didn't even get a response. If I did, it was generic or "we're working on it" but I'd never hear again. For a firm that has so many people with PMPs, it made me wonder how the leaders even passed the PMP exam to begin with because there was no clear project, program, or organizational management...an irony for a firm that supposedly prides itself on guiding leaders in organizational strategies. In my opinion, this messy organization is not worth the VERY meager "benefits" they offer. Overall, it's sadly not a culture of learning because any time employees bring up issues and recommendations for improvement, the same tired phrase of "we're a new, small company" is repeated. New (8 years old....not exactly a start up) and small (70+ employees) can still improve and learn. The good ones do, at least.
